Syria:Last week the Syrian army made some progress in Idleb. Starting Friday there was another cease fire but the terrorists broke it the very same day. The intensebombingcampaign (vids, English subs) against them will thus continue. Asma Al-Assad defeated her breast cancer. She gave an interview to Syrian TV: Video with English subs.

Nottheonly1 @ 90
Bang on target with all your points in @90 , plus all your other comments !
Last year I was saying exactly the same as you now, I was right then (proven by time) and you are right now.
Sadly I got stamped on in a big way.
But it’s good to have you on here (the best blog on the net)
I would love to here of your background and compare notes !
Antifa is the way forward, big up blackblock !
Kudos ! Nottheonly1

1. I'm an old US citizen - born in the USA more than 65 years ago - lived here my entire life.
2. I am NOT paid to pretend anything, or espouse any ideas.
3. My definition of homophobia corresponds with dictionary definitions. You are of course free to change the meaning of any word you like, just as Orwell wrote about.
4. No, it does not appear that the Dayton shooter was a Commie (your word), but that he was a Bernie/Warren supporter and socialist.

1. That You lived in the US your entire life, gives you a shared responsibility in the crimes the US as a Nation has committed. Having been born more than 65 years ago, you should be more aware of the witch hunt under McCarthy. Do you seriously allege that American Socialists (they still existed at that time - but not later on) were not treated the same way so called Commmies were? Do you seriously allege that a certain type of widespread mindset that suffers from inflammation today as much as it did under the 'House Committee for Un-American Activities' makes a difference between 'Commie' and Socialist?
2. Since this statement can be neither confirmed nor disproved, it is irrelevant.
3. That tells more about you that you could ever imagine. Because it is the oldest excuse in the world. What dictionary? Written by whom? It is a fact that the dictionary will only reflect what a body of people who are paid to do so agrees upon to be printed. That is a fact. A dictionary is the attempt to steer the mindset of the population in question. Nothing more. That is the reason why a living language is only partially covered by dictionaries. On the other hand, dictionaries always reflect what TPTB see fit to print and vice versa. A dictionary is never any proof or evidence of the alleged definition. It is meant as an aid and supposedly adjusts to the changes of any society's spoken language. Just go back 20 years and look for e.g. 'twitter'. There is a difference between giving a word any meaning you like and being aware of it containing always a differing meaning as well.
But I do appreciate the comparison with Orwell and feel extremely honored.
4. YES, The Dayton shooter will be called a 'Commie' by a large margin of the American population. Because for that part of the population there are only 'Commies' and professing to have lived over 65 years in the US, it is pathetic that you would deny that fact. I figured that out after only 23 years in the US.

And for Pete's sake, I recommend to read the works of Henry Wallace about the American Fascist. That will show that you are willing to overcome your own programs and conditions and look into this remarkable person's works.

"Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher stopped letters going out to Epstein's young victims, which would have notified them of Epstein plea and their rights for civil litigation against Epstein."

As noted by thread commenters, the corruption's deep, systemic, and bipartisan. Fisher was interviewed for the top FBI job by Trump admin.

i realize it is not the way the term is used, but how do americans justify this and at the same time have a problem with socialism? it seems weird to me..

so corporate welfare of an extreme nature is cool, but socialism ain't cool... what this tells me is wall st. is calling a lot of the shots in the usa.. no better way to see this is then thru the 2008 bailout.. none of them have been held accountable.. they are all laughing in the face of the taxpayers and the corporate msm will not address what is a glaring double standard in the usa today - one of many!!!

nottheonly1 and mina - trump supports white supremacy... he can say all he wants contrary to that... the guy is a thru and thru liar... that much at least ought to have dawned on americans by now - then again - maybe not!!

It would be much more accurate to state you drank the kool-aid by voting Trump into office in 2016...and the current state of zionist/imperialist love between Trump and Netanyahu, the tariff war with China, the recission of JCPOA, the current tensions with Iran, the rise of white nationalism....

You voted for all these (and so much more!!!). Now then, go take a dump in your own imperialist backyard bro. LMAO

VK - thanks for your considered comment. You are correct we could argue endlessly....maybe it cuts to the chase to consider our debate using the definitions I posted to james a few coments above:

so·cial·ism

noun
1. a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

2. (in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of Communism.

It seems to me the Chinese economy doesn't fit the first definition because the means of production are neither owned nor regulated by the community as a whole.

Your argument is more valid imho if we use the Marxist definition and view China as currently transitioning through the stages of capitalist development which will someday result in the party overthrowing its self-created oligarchy to realise communism.

I've explained that I supported the Greens until the last few weeks. I voted against Hillary, not for Trump. I'd bet that many Greens and Sanders were also fooled into voting for Hillary or Trump despite their distaste for each of them.

Furthermore, I've made the case - strenuously - that Trump was installed by the Deep State to counter the challenge from Russia and China. That makes him illegitimate.

How many times do we have to go over this?

Part of the reason that I'm so cynical is that I voted for Obama and against Hillary later came to realize that each election was a set-up. There really was no choice between McCain and Obama or between Hillary and Trump. IMO the establishment/Deep State Presidency believes that the Presidency is too important to allow for a Democratic choice.

@ 110 said; "Part of the reason that I'm so cynical is that I voted for Obama and against Hillary later came to realize that each election was a set-up. There really was no choice between McCain and Obama or between Hillary and Trump. IMO the establishment/Deep State Presidency believes that the Presidency is too important to allow for a Democratic choice."

Damn, I feel EXACTLY the same rabbit. And wait for 2020, because it'll probably come down the same way. Your last sentence says it all...

The problem with your (or rather Alex Jones') antidepressant theory is that there's simply no evidence that even suggest such a correlation. All the developed (and much of the developing) world take a lot of antidepressants. There's also no evidence antidepressants cause psychosis -- on the contrary, the goal of an antidepressant is to put the brain to a "neutral state".

"Yes, I reinforce my statement that Trump is not a white supremacist himself, but a person who has a pragmatic view of white supremacism: he sees it as an ideology with good potential, but still too green to be readily used for America's national interests....As an American capitalist with class consciousness, Donald Trump knows who America's real enemy is -- and it is socialism (which, in the 21st century, essentially survives through China)."

posted by: vk | Aug 5 2019 15:56 utc | 83

LOl you clearly don't know jack about Donald Trump. He is dyed in the wool white supramcist like his KKK supporting father. The apple didn't fall from the tree with DJT and his crusade against wrongly accused "Central Park Five" even after they were exonerated and this is long before that pedophile even thought about being president. Do we even need to mention he jumped on the "Birther" bandwagon? Again long before the serial rapist thought of being president.

Donald Trump is not class consciousness because that would require thinking about something of other them himself. Go listen to the old Howard Stern interviews with the fondler in chief he only cares about himself and the next underage girl he is going to rape. Not to mention the disturbing remarks he made about his own daughter.

DJT was not voted in, he was selected for the exact same reason Zaphod Beeblebrox was selected for Galactic president.
“The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud."-Douglas Adams

I just read that the US has designated China as a currency manipulator today. This is the pot calling kettle black

This is coming from a country that abdicated its responsibility in 1971 to provide Reserve Currency (of value) status by going off the gold standard and creating totally fiat/debt based money.

That action is now coming home to roost as the center point of the WWIII that we are in. The world is awash in debt that is being enforced by war mongering and bullying. This forced debt financial structure has found the end of its efficacy on parts of the world that is now challenging its control over themselves and the rest of the world.

Control of the global narrative has kept empire afloat for 50 years but no longer is effective in many areas of the world.

As I have written here before, US default on its debt is coming before the 2020 (s)election.

If the world doesn't go the human extinction route, I predict a meeting to establish a new global monetary system will signal the end of WWIII. Given the pace of kabuki events since Trump was (s)elected and recent escalation, I expect resolution within a year......

james - I don't actually believe most Amerikkkans are necessarily OK with extreme forms of corporate welfare nor are they necessarily anti-socialism. Do you have data on that or are we simply relying on certain bullying commenters' biased, stereotyped caricature of what Amerikkkans do or want?

Americans today are more closely divided than they were earlier in the last century when asked whether some form of socialism would be a good or bad thing for the country. While 51% of U.S. adults say socialism would be a bad thing for the country, 43% believe it would be a good thing. Those results contrast with a 1942 Roper/Fortune survey that found 40% describing socialism as a bad thing, 25% a good thing and 34% not having an opinion.

I believe we are transitiong to a period where the majority may in fact become cool with socialism...although I think in reality what will likely pass muster in the near term is a social democracy welfare state which includes higher taxes, especially on top incomes and wealth in exchange for an increased welfare state. These ideas are in the process of becoming mainstream political ideas in one of the major parties.

Previous Gallup research shows that Americans' definition of socialism has changed over the years, with nearly one in four now associating the concept with social equality and 17% associating it with the more classical definition of having some degree of government control over the means of production. A majority of Democrats have said they view socialism positively in Gallup polling since 2010, including 57% in the most recent measure in 2018.

Demotards get such a bad rap for many, many reasons here at MoA, some valid and some not so valid but still should these correct-thinking voters be supported and helped to bring about a better (not perfect) society instead of scorned or shunned here?

At the end of the day I stand with bevin, who I believe to be one of the smartest commenters on the internet and also not a cynic. Bevin supports Bernie not because he is utopian or that bernie can singlehandedly beat down the DNC, the zionists, the MIC, the racist/fascist GOP....or the cynics at MoA.

Because history is a process. All you have to see if the Rupblican Party since roughly Nixon to see how the system can be moved very far in one direction over time.....and it can also be moved in the other direction.

An excerpt;"Twenty years ago, Australia passed strict laws to control what types of guns people could own. The country also required people to sell to the government any guns that were made illegal. Since then, Australia has seen zero mass shootings, a new study finds."

'I've explained that I supported the Greens until the last few weeks. I voted against Hillary, not for Trump. I'd bet that many Greens and Sanders were also fooled into voting for Hillary or Trump despite their distaste for each of them...

Part of the reason that I'm so cynical is that I voted for Obama and against Hillary later came to realize that each election was a set-up. There really was no choice between McCain and Obama or between Hillary and Trump. IMO the establishment/Deep State Presidency believes that the Presidency is too important to allow for a Democratic choice."
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 5 2019 22:53 utc | 110

This seems contradictory, so I have to ask whey continue with the ritual in the first place?

Part of the reason that I'm so cynical is that I voted for Obama and against Hillary later came to realize that each election was a set-up. There really was no choice between McCain and Obama or between Hillary and Trump. IMO the establishment/Deep State Presidency believes that the Presidency is too important to allow for a Democratic choice.

I'm not arguing your opinion, much of it is correct albeit a bit crispy fried on the edges. You could even be entirely correct but so what does that mean? Where has your cynicism gotten you, JR? Where has it gotten the world we've lived in the prior 60 some odd years as its moved irresistably to the side of the wealthy and powerful?

I see your cynicism aiding and abetting that rightward movement. And I say that with sadness not accusation or with any put down intended.

I know that underneath the cynical Jackrabbit exists a painfully damaged idealist.

And I know because that's where I also reside much of the time inside in my own wounded heart.

For me, there are no words to describe the man. It should suffice to call him the anti-christ. My Mom forbade me to use explicit language and I keep it that way with the exception of war criminals and Fascists in general.

I call him anti-christ, because he is anti-everything Christ stood for - as far as the story goes. Which is a real double whammy, considering that his followers will try to sell anybody that they are all firm believers in Jesus. But his base are folks that believe in the rapture and that humans were riding dinosaurs.

I could also call him an egotistic narcissist that cares only about himself and only about others when it serves himself. A shameless opportunist and demagogue that will never rise to a level of Joseph Goebbels, but it may have merits to investigate if they are related. After all, the US imported countless Nazis and he is young enough to be the offspring of one of these Nazis.

"I call him anti-christ, because he is anti-everything Christ stood for - as far as the story goes. Which is a real double whammy, considering that his followers will try to sell anybody that they are all firm believers in Jesus. But his base are folks that believe in the rapture and that humans were riding dinosaurs."
Posted by: nottheonly1 | Aug 6 2019 0:12 utc | 121

You hit the nail on the head on that one, it is Christian Zionist (which existed prior to Jewish Zionism and later figured out how to manipulate the christians zionist) who are his core and cult followers. They literally see him as sign of the end times bible prophecy fulfillment(Trumpets and all that jazz).

One could not make stuff like this up. If someone ever did, I would really want to read it. But the closest might really be 'The Hitchhiker's Guide Through The Galaxy'. It would have to be a work of fiction to be able to match this extremely twisted reality.

At the end of the day I stand with bevin, who I believe to be one of the smartest commenters on the internet and also not a cynic. Bevin supports Bernie not because he is utopian or that bernie can singlehandedly beat down the DNC, the zionists, the MIC, the racist/fascist GOP....or the cynics at MoA.

Because history is a process. All you have to see if the Rupblican Party since roughly Nixon to see how the system can be moved very far in one direction over time.....and it can also be moved in the other direction.

Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 5 2019 23:45 utc | 116

I believe the answer is less about the political process being changed and more about the changing of the programming that was handed down to us, and ensuring our children don't fall into the same traps. Having kids makes you realize that the best you can do for the world is trying to shape and make a better human than you and who will able to influence others and pass it on. The simplest definition of evolution is the changing of traits in a population over time. This doesn't just happen in a physical biological sense but also a psychological sense and the overall consciousness of humanity. As far as politics goes, it is better to concentrate on the local and the things that immediately affect you like community control of the police.

Donkeytale it is very hard for me to understand why you or anyone —if someone gave you a time machine with a very narrow destination— would choose to go back and bet your life on Hillary Clinton, even now after we've gotten to see Trump.

That is what you're saying isn't it?

Either Trump would still win (by far the most likely), or Clinton winning at best wouldn't be any different to now, or she would kill us all before 2019 by attacking Iran as she promised or as the result of any other "tough" madness to show everybody who was wearing the pants/trousers.

Not a sensible gamble. Or are you claiming she would be better despite Trump turning into Clinton Lite™? To me that would make you a cultist of some kind... an Arkansas twist on Scientology? Church of Clintonology? (Someone should have thought of that one).

If jail isn't an option (Epstein and her hubby from hell might still manage to get her there) then let her drink in peace without adherents torturing her with dreams of megalomania. I bet she never sleeps.

---

Slightly different subject: one way or another I still don't believe there's going to be any US election in 2020. But if there is then with the world as it has become since the last US election it's clearly not going to change anything no matter who wins it nor will it matter: the US isn't what it was in 2016.

"In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Global Research News Hour host Michael Welch, Professor Hudson explains how the Bretton Woods institutions came to be an instrument of the U.S. empire, the similarities and differences behind the paths to Chinese and US economic prosperity, the virtual impossibility of electing a genuine reformer to the White House, the case of Canada, and more."

The transcript's not the best; it needs further editing. IMO, it's taking Dr. Hudson awhile but he finally puts together 3 outstanding paragraphs about the genuine nature of what's happening:

"So it’s not China versus the US, it’s whether you want a Thatcherite, neoliberal policy that’s going to impoverish you and leave your corporations bankrupt, and let the United States exploit you again and again, and from the auto pact agreement in the 70s down through NAFTA, or are you going to act in your own economic self-interest?

"You don’t have to join China to act in your economic self-interest. You don’t have to join China to return to a Bank of Canada like it used to be, to free yourself from the banks. You don’t have to join China to have a tax policy that lowers the price of housing by imposing a ground rent, a basic rent allocation, so that all of the rent won’t be paid to the banks as interest.

"You can lower the cost of business by deleveraging the economy. So it’s just… They’re trying to frighten you when they’re trying to talk about the yellow peril dependency on China. What really it is, it is not a war of America against China. It’s a war of do you want feudalism and debt peonage or do you want economic survival."

IF a nation's people can summon their collective will, it's possible to dig out of the hole dug for you by the financial parasites. Probably easier for Canada having a smaller, more homogenous population and a parliamentary system.

Donkeytale it is very hard for me to understand why you or anyone —if someone gave you a time machine with a very narrow destination— would choose to go back and bet your life on Hillary Clinton, even now after we've gotten to see Trump.

That is what you're saying isn't it?

I don't think this is what I'm saying at all. I think I'm saying we better do better than Trump or Hillary next time but if we follow the cynical path we will get....Trump again for sure. The cynical path plays just as much into the the hands of the PTB as a direct vote for Trump.

And then you'll be asking me two years later how could I ever go back in time and choose...Biden. When I backed Bernie in 2016 and probably Bernie again in 2020 or at least whomever is to the left of Biden still standing at the end of the primaries.

As for the second part, I'm sure we in the US are not the totality of what Trump and his 40% of the electorate represent as the totality of the US.

I think as a nation we are much better people than generally portrayed, and the best of us are too poor, disorganised, dispirited, lacking in gumption and possessing a greater sense of decency than those who have hijacked our national identity since 1980.

I also believe for every action there is an equal reaction and Trump is clearly overplaying his hand in all directions. I hate to pray for a recession because real people, already disadvantaged people, will get hurt most and they are already hurting so bad in this country....but all signs point to a global downturn, it will just be our luck it will happen in February 2021 after Trump wins re-election...

Well, as I explained @109 (you know, the comment that you replied to):

I've made the case - strenuously - that Trump was installed by the Deep State to counter the challenge from Russia and China.

This insight comes from a place that's very different from your brand of self-satisfied cynicism. When will YOU stop shilling for an electoral system that is essentially a "lesser evil" shell game? When will YOU stop drinking (and regurgitating) the Kool-Aid?

Hudson writes about "Global Warming and U.S. National Security Diplomacy" in a sober, illuminating essay. In the following excerpted paragraph, Hudson opines on what has driven the post-2008 economy that I've taken as a given:

"Warmer air temperature means a higher rate of evaporation, and hence more rain, tornados and flooding, as we are seeing this year. A related result will be drought as glaciers melt and no longer feed the major rivers on which dams have been built to generate electric power. The seeming irony is that these effects of global warming and extreme weather have become bulwarks of the rise in U.S. GDP. The cleanup costs of air and water pollution, the expense of rebuilding flooded or damaged homes, crop destruction, the increased cost of air conditioning, of coping with the spread of injurious insects northward and the rise in medical and health costs may actually account for all its growth since 2008."

Covering/paying for all the externalities incurred began with Katrina. I hope barflies are aware that when they die, their deaths bump up their nation's GDP as that's how the accounting's done.

The take away quote
"
“It is critical to preserve the Federal Reserve’s ability to make decisions based on the best interests of the nation, not the interests of a small group of politicians,” the former Fed chairs wrote.
"

I suggest that you replace the words "...a small group of politicians" with a small group of global financiers to uncover the blatant lie

@101 - Wow! Doubling down on your non-sequitur argumentation style won't win you any arguments. It will just make people disengage from you.

FWIW, your dismissal of my claim that I'm not a paid shill (2) could be used as a response to my age claim (1), and for that matter anything else I write. And yet you respond with many words attacking strawmen over ideas that I never wrote about. Your projection of who I am is as wrong as any I've seen in commentland. No I did not vote for Trump. I didn't vote for Hillary either. Trump is probably the single most narcissistic person I've ever observed either by first hand experience or through the media. He is an amoral man, is certainly not a Christian, and has seemingly no guiding principles. He is truly an empty vessel. He does seem to have a fondness for Jews though, having married one and with all of his other familial connections to Zionists. His reliance on Sheldon Adelson as a primary advisor is most telling. I am all in on the Occupy Wall Street movement - the big banks are truly evil, having captured our government for their own enrichment. Ron Paul had one thing right - End the Fed.

And also FWIW, no I don't remember the McCarthy hearings. I was too young. And yes, I agree that the government of the USA has been imperialist for a long time (since at least the 1840's). My first window to that was Viet Nam, a truly criminal enterprise initiated by the CIA and the MIC, the precursor of what we today call the deep state. Ike's prophetic warning in his farewell speech is chilling. A book that I recommend all should read is The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government.

And finally, with respect to your dismissal of word meanings and dictionaries - the inability for conversants to agree on word meanings invariably ends with separation and even violence. That's the future I see for the people of the USA.

The study in your link is not a scientific one. It's just a collection of anecdotal cases and some macro statistics.

@ Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 5 2019 22:50 utc | 109

The phrase "socialism for the rich" is not that far away from Marxist theory. Marx himself wrote on book III of Das Kapital, when explaining the concepts of prices of production and social (general) rate of profit:

Here, then, we have the mathematically exact demonstration, how it is that the capitalists form a veritable freemason society arrayed against the whole working class, however much they may treat each other as false brothers in the competition among themselves.

The price of production includes the average profit. We call it price of production. It is, as a matter of fact, the same thing which Adam Smith calls natural price, Ricardo price of production, or cost of production, and the physiocrats prix necessaire, because it is in the long run a prerequisite of supply, of the reproduction of commodities in every individual sphere. But none of them has revealed the difference between price of production and value. We can well understand, then, why these same economists, who always resist a determination of the value of commodities by labor-time, by the quantity of labor contained in them, always speak of prices of production as centers, around which market-prices fluctuate. They can afford to do that because the price of production is an utterly external and, at first glance, meaningless form of the value of commodities, a form as seen in competition and thus reflected in the mind of the vulgar capitalist, and consequently in that of the vulgar economists.

Our analysis resulted in the discovery that the market-value (and everything said concerning it applies with the necessary modifications to the prlee of production) implies a surplus-profit for those who produce in any particular sphere of production under the most favorable conditions. With the exception of crises, and of over-production in general, this applies to all market-prices, no matter how much they may deviate from market-values or market-prices of production. For the market-price signifies that the same price is paid for commodities of the same kind, although they may have been produced under very different individual conditions and may have considerably different cost-prices. (We do not speak at this point of any surplus-profits due to monopolies in the strict meaning of the term, whether they are artificial or natural.)

A surplus-profit may also arise, when certain spheres of production are in a position to evade the conversion of the values of their commodities into prices of production, and thus a reduction of their profits to the average profit. We shall devote more attention to the further modifications of these two forms ground-rent.

(Peguin edition, 1909, p. 233-234)

This "freemason society" is, nothing more nothing less than what Americans call nowadays "socialism for the rich"/"corporate welfare": the higher the degree of exploitation of labor in a given capitalist society and the more developed is said capitalist system in this same society, the higher the prices of production, which means the higher is the social rate of profit, which means that the capitalist class as a whole wins.

Nice rhetoric JR but evades my question altogether. So, the obvious answer is your cynicism has gotten us Trump...and if you continue this way will get us...Trump again.

All the rest of the "deep state installed Trump to challenge Russia and China" schtick is very Tom Clancy cum Jackrabbit big screen melodrama.
Picture a quorun of the deep state council sitting in a big secret auditorium, all sternly aging white rabbits, er I mean white men in crisp military uniforms dripping medals and ribbons (even though not a single one ever fought a single battle anywhere) deciding after much hushed debate that yes, Trump is their perfect Manchurian candidate, just the man needed to destabilise the world, ruin the US economy and bring Russia/China together as a team so they can be simultaneously destroyed...especially China that immense industrial engine of global capitalism and US multinational corporate profits.

Well put, sir! Yes, I see US society on its way to achieving critical mass, which may be either positive or negative. The problem with Ike's speech is that he was co-conspirator in the rise of the demon he warned about and was also a Constitutional Criminal for Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Indochina, and more. The National Security State couldn't have found a better front-man to cover for its many illegalities and growth during its formative years.

"The study in your link is not a scientific one. It's just a collection of anecdotal cases and some macro statistics."
Posted by: vk | Aug 6 2019 1:40 utc | 136

I guess you chose to not look at the references and footnotes.

Here is some more:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19517368
CONCLUSION:
Treatment with ssris does not increase the risk of suicide in adults, but it is difficult to make a firm pronouncement about the effect of ssris on suicidal behaviour (ideation and suicide attempts). However, in children, adolescents and young adults being treated with ssris, there is an increased risk of attempted suicide.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15521830
RESULTS:
There was greater than a five-fold increase in risk for suicidal behaviour after discontinuation of antidepressant treatment (P < 0.0001). The rates of suicidal behavior during treatment with SSRIs or TCAs were similar.

CONCLUSION:
Suicidal behaviour in unipolar depressed patients treated with antidepressants increases substantially after medication discontinuation. This effect occurred in both patients who were maintained on SSRIs and TCAs. The findings support a possible protective effect on suicidal behaviour for both SSRIs and TCAs.

SSRI Stories is a collection of over 6,000 stories that have appeared in the media (newspapers, TV, scientific journals) in which prescription drugs were mentioned and in which the drugs may be linked to a variety of adverse outcomes including violence.https://ssristories.org/

Notice Marx nowhere in this passage makes national distinctions between capitalists but class distinctions. And as a class they profit despite varying conditions, costs of production, profit margins. I believe this to be true because capitalist production stems from initial investment which also take into account the relative differences in needed inputs to achieve the same rates of return. For instance higher wage costs,

I was kidding in my tongue in cheek comment to jackrabbit above but Chinese production is tied to US corporate profits which also generate investment profits for Chinese companies

...and vice versa. Chinese companies invest profitably in US companies, developing nations economies, all at differing amounts required by the circumstances but all with the effect of supporting and building surplus value for each of the producers within the related chain of production

@116 donkey... it is hard to know who or what the ''ordinary american'' believes in, or is... i go by the actions of the usa on the world stage and unfortunately the usa on the world stage is responsible for a lot of bad shit, not to mention how they want to suggest otherwise.... the knight in shining armor doesn't work for me and hasn't for a long time.. some folks might believe that, but not me..

as for bevin and his comments - i pretty much agree, but i don't believe bernie sanders is much of anything personally.. in fact, it seems like to qualify as a politician in the usa and much of the western world today, you have to stand for exactly nothing when it comes right down to it.. so many of them and especially bernie - is just a cog in the wheel that want to go along with the agenda as prescribed by the financial elite running the dem party.. i am sorry.. it isn't about repubs or dems, but about a 2 party system where they both represent one party - the war party... and they are happy to go along with bailing out banks and etc. etc. remember - that was on obamas watch - a dem... it doesn't seem to matter who is in power in the usa - they are all shit.. it isn't that much different here in canada, but we don't count as much on the world stage.. as far as i can tell the usa hasn't had a decent leader since carter, and in canada since trudeau senior.. so, i guess i disagree with bevin on sanders being the solution.. i think the usa at this point is unfixable short of a complete revolution...

@121 nottheonly1.. i mostly agree with you.. trump is as bad as one can get for a leader, but maybe the usa has it in them to find someone worse, or at least hold to trump for another term and hopefully that will kill whatever they had before he got into power.. the world has moved on, meanwhile the usa finds itself in the gutter on a daily basis with trump.. antichrist - sure, although i don't like thinking in religious terms like that, so maybe your last few sentences is a better way of describing him..

@128 karlof1... thanks for that interview from manitoba... he says a lot of insightful things.. donkey really ought to read what he has to say about bernie sanders 3/4s down the page... i agree with his comments on the world bank and the imf and about where canada is at.. it sounds like those changes happened during trudeau seniors era.. if so, i might have to take back what i said about trudeau senior.. thanks for that...

But I might ask the same question of you. Where has your devotion to the Democratic Party wing of the US rigged electoral system gotten you and the millions of people that are fooled into participating in the farce?

Well, we know the answer: duplicitous neoliberal Obama who betrayed those who trusted his "Change You Can Believe In" promise; establishment hag Hillary that critics worried may not be the greatest evil but might be the more effective evil; sheepdog Sanders; and identity politics which slyly dumps class politics and instead pits anti-establishment groups against each other. Bonus: support for militarism and the Russiagate farce.

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IMO the best avenue for reform is direct democracy. This is something that principled people on both the right and left can agree on.

“The Trump administration has frozen all Venezuelan government assets in a significant escalation of tensions with socialist leader Nicolás Maduro. It places Washington’s trade relations with the South American country on a par with Cuba, Syria, Iran and North Korea.”

“The ban on Americans doing business with Venezuela’s government takes effect immediately.”

“All property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States ... are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in,” the executive order says.”

Who indeed is the deep state darling? The zionist messiah? I think to answer that one needs to ask, "What did Israel want the most from the 2016 presidential candidate?" Easy-peazy...a no-fly zone over Syria.

Embassy in Jerusalem...recognizing The Golan as Israel's...small potatoes, the booby prize, fait accompli.

That's a misleading question. The fact is, BOTH Hillary and Trump are darlings of the Deep State.

I've proposed that Trump was selected over Hillary because Hillary doesn't have the required public persona. She has too much baggage to play the nationalist savior. And, importantly, she doesn't have the respect of military recruits. You may recall that in 2013, as Obama contemplated a US strike on Syria, the Deep State was shocked when US soldiers sarcastically asked if USA was al Queda's airforce.

The US Deep State understands that restoring the Empire requires a credible willingness to fight. That's what MAGA is all about. And that isn't possible when troops question their orders and leadership.

No one questions Trump's nationalism or his devotion to MAGA. That is the dog that didn't bark because Trump was never a nationalist leader. Only a gadfly.

The closest the Democrats have come is the feeble, "America was always great".

They ignore the fact that there's nothing in Trump's background that suggests a prior concern with MAGA that is anything more than superficial. Trump's concern has always been for himself: he was exempted from military service due to "bone spurs"; he ran his businesses with little regard to integrity with many bankruptcies and scams; he led a racist, years-long wild-goose-chase against Obama known as 'the Birthers'; he became close to questionable characters like Jeffery Epstein and the Clintons.

Personally, I don't like guns/wish we didn't need them, but I think that unfortunately people are what they are and the world is what it is and there are situations when/where a person needs to be able to defend self (or better, deter attack).

Also personal opinion - I do think real, real-time, strict, methodical, with periodic renewal back-ground check needs to be done.

"I don't like guns/wish we didn't need them, but I think that unfortunately people are what they are and the world is what it is and there are situations when/where a person needs to be able to defend self (or better, deter attack)"

sure!! every country in the world has 250 mass killings in just 7 months!

Although the term's been around awhile, Economic Terrorism is making its way into the global lexicon thanks to the illegal sanctions and embargoes foisted on nations by the Outlaw US Empire. This is the latest use as the Russian Foreign Ministry calls out the just announced embargo against Venezuela for what it is. Earlier this year, Iran rightfully accused the Outlaw US Empire of waging Economic Terrorism against it, which marked the term's usage escalation. Of course, the term is censored by BigLie Media, but its increasing use in international forums like the NAM Conference that just took place and G-20 prior to it helps to further isolate the Empire and its dwindling number of vassals. Thirty years ago, most of the world's nations would kneel and obey US Imperial diktat without question. Now, that situation's reversed, but the credit doesn't all go to Trump for Obama/Clinton/Kerry laid the groundwork whose crimes still exceed those of Trump's.

The embargo against the newly communist China failed; the same happened with Cuba; it's again failing against Iran; and the string of failures will continue with Venezuela. All have lessened the international standing and proven the nature of the Outlaw US Empire; so, why does it persist in this insane behavior pattern--essentially 70 years of policy failure? Is it blinded so well by its own dogma and doctrine to the point where it drinks its own Koolaid? Or is all the bluster, bullying and pontification only meant for domestic consumption? Quien Sabe? Well, looks like the Fed stepped in before the opening of US markets and temporarily stopped the slide.

Related to mass shooting in the US, state of affairs in the US, and reality as it is with respect to everything, including the economic war against China en everybody out there, compilation of Twitter pearls, since people seem to be sembrada today....May be it is the hot weather....

Thousands of people injecting themselves insulin for dogs in the US, because they can't afford to pay for treatments. The reality of late capitalism today.

Trump appointed Alex Azar secretary of health in 2017. Between 2012 and 2017, Azar was president of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company in the US, raising the price of insulin to such high numbers that people die because they cannot medicate.
The insulin cartel fights generics.

The US will investigate your activity on social networks when you apply for a visa....
I do not know if they apply it, but I have completely taken away the desire to go there to absolutely nothing, let alone to get shot in a Walmart

Well, yes, hamijos, the US is that great country in which 50 million poor people eat daily thanks to charity, thousands of patients inject themselves insulin for dogs or die at the doors of hospitals, there are hundreds of thousands of homelees and several weekly shootings.

But you see their series, with those beautiful urbanizations of single-family homes and happy children on bicycles and you die of pleasure, memos.

Yesterday I heard that the families were asking for money for the hospitalization of the victims of the attack. I flipped a lot. A terrorist shoots you and you pay for hospitalization?

I could open an Insta account called "People carrying weapons in Walmart" and it will give me several daily posts. I don't do it because I'm afraid of photographing them.
In a quick Google search you can find thousands.

Of course, it doesn't matter much that they bring it on. If you forget it at home, there you have a great variety to choose from.
Right next to the diapers, the detergent and the essentials of going back to school.

They have made the vast majority believe that the US is the model to be imitated and an admirable country, and when you tell them that they lynched blacks in public shows until well into the 50s of the last century, or you put pictures of Yankees with the rifle at the ready for a walk, they collapse.

It is between pain and laugh to see some babbling that there is no need to generalize, and that at the point of several shootings per week, when you counterprogram their propaganda clutter.

In further developments, "CHINA MIGHT ESCORT CHINESE COMMERCIAL VESSELS IN GULF WATERS UNDER A US PROPOSAL FOR A MARITIME COALITION TO SECURE OIL SHIPPING LANES, ITS UAE ENVOY SAID TUESDAY."

Wow! Chinese navy escorting Iranian oil-filled Chinese tankers isn't what the Outlaw US Empire had in mind. And how long can the UK sustain itself without importing Gulf crude and products. Clearly, anglophone chess players aren't thinking far enough ahead in making their moves as they continue to be placed in check. The imagery of a drowning Uncle $cam entangled with the British lion flailing their extremities comes to mind.

"74 yrs after US became first & ONLY regime to deploy a nuclear weapon—on a city, designed to maximize casualties—it is STILL targeting civilians. This time, with #EconomicTerrorism, violating a historic nuclear deal & punishing those who seek to adhere to it."

I saw that, too. It begs the question WTF are Venezuelan assets doing in the US?

Is that some sort of satire? I mean, given the history of the meddling of the American Fascists in the internal affairs of Venezuela over the last 16+ years, and after the obvious infection of Chavez with cancer causing agents, Venezuela had all these years to remove all of its assets out of the hands of the Fascist US regime.

What am I missing here, please? There is only one possible scenario: you can't get your assets back anyways. Once deposited in the US, they're gone. Why would one do that, then?

Sure, the real reason is likely to be that assets from the now nationalized oil company were transferred before it was nationalized by Chavez and they were left there by Maduro - believing Venezuela could get them back in time.

But the extradition act is already shelved, why are they still going all out to provoke the police , the govn ?
LIke I say, while the quisling JImmy Lai and his fukus mentors are bent on killing the extradition act., their agenda goes far beyond that, they wanna provoke a crackdown, they want a bloodbath.

sobs have successfully demonised China with that TAM 'massacre' hoax.
now they want a TAM2, with actual footage of police brutality .
CNN, Reuters, BBc, are on site with camera ready,.
its up to the agent provocateurs to do their stuff now,
I heard many frontline cadres are paid top monies.

The children of independence leaders wont be in the melee, risking injury and arrest ....
I guess they dont need the dough.

All their precious sons./daughters are working/studying in fukus, their preferred motherland.

Because the US corporations are the only ones to which the whole blockade do not affect.
If you work with Us companies, at a point in time there are transactions of money circulating in US banks.
This is to monopolize oild market, as well as with tank seizures, and at the same teim starve the resilient Venezuelan people. This is a siege, to see when the UN would intervene about a siege on a nation and its legitimate government.

Apparently, we all missed something big said by Gabbard during the last debate (with video):

"Naturally I was disappointed when #TulsiGabbard called #Assad a dictator and voted to condemn #BDS but having her say on US Nat'l TV in the debate that #DonaldTrump is supporting Al-Qaeda in #Syria was music to my ears. Americans need to hear this truth." [My Emphasis]

"I was watching the latest episode of Crosstalk & @PLCROSSTALK pointed out a passage from an article written by Al Qaeda mouthpiece Josh Rogin of the @washingtonpost about @TulsiGabbard. I mean does this guy think the readers are stupid? Most people know this as the truth #Syria:

"'Listening to Gabbard, one might think the United States initiated the Syrian conflict by arming terrorists that has resulted in untold suffering....'"

There's a reason why the Assad Apologist smear is being used likely based on polling results and years of BigLie Media propaganda. It will be harder for Gabbard to overcome than the negative media bewailing Trump as he began his campaign. But the additional exposure might help along with more people looking for the truth about Syria.

No wonder that the threat of nuclear annihilation is no longer taken serious. However, 39 years after this emission it is very sobering to hear what people thought and even more what they might think today.

pat lang logic... "The various governments should get busy and find the means of denying firearms to the mentally ill. pl" how about denying them to all the temporarily mentally ill too? how do you plan to do that?? another stupid concept from pat lang... too bad pl can't see how messed up adhering to a constitution that is so outdated, it has ceased to serve the purpose intended..

I am answering you over here to try and maintain some respect for thread scope creep.

You wrote
"
i have to agree with o here karlof1... the idea that trump had any influence on the private bank - federal reserve - is a joke... this is like wizard of oz material...
"
Do you believe that Trump is not playing on the same team as those that control the Fed?

What team is he playing on? How has empire let that team live this long?

I believe that there is one empire behind one curtain in spite of the kabuki you see to keep the masses confused and complacent

I must concur with Don Will's comment at 92. Yours at 91 is a bit over the top. You been reading too much William Gruff for his fake take on Amerikkka is maybe what's behind these sentiments? lol

Or maybe reading too much into Trump who definitely wants to incite open hostilities among the racist white right to exploit political divisions for his own re-election.

My feeling is like Trump is overdoing it in all respects of "governing" and it is up to Amerikkkans to back a more sympathetic leftist candidate instead of Biden because the presidency is there for the taking, especially if the next recession hits before the election as it did in 2008.

It has become a fast paced world and I did not see that you addressed me as well re. what I wrote. Maybe you will still be able to read this response.

If you must concur with Don Will's comment, that is fine by me. But is shows that you are not without prejudice to the comment without his reply.

I don't know who William Gruff is, nor do I know who you are, or Don Will. I see names that are likely not the real names of the commenters. Mine is not. It is a mindset, because I am not the only one that understands how this world really works. Allow me to explain why responded the way I did.

After 23 years living in the United and having paid attention under the utilization of a critical mind, I came to the following conclusion:

The American population has only to the smallest margin realized that its so called Democratic Republic has been set up to ensure an eternal rule of capital over humanity. A system was installed that lulled the population into the belief that they would have a real say in the creation of laws that would ultimately determine their lives and the way they live. A two party system promised the working class that - if they ever experienced the need to do so, that they could abolish this system and create an improved version.

Unfortunately, these were of course the first lies aimed at pacifying a growing population that became more powerful via a larger margin of those eligible to vote. 'Negroes' and 'women' were not considered to be either capable, nor undeserving of the right to vote. Please refer to the series 'Plutocracy' for a more detailed history of the United States electoral system.

The owner class decided for the two party system, because the best way to control a population is to divide them into two factions. It is infinitely more difficult to manipulate a population that can chose between e.g ten political parties that have to see a majority and in order to get there - compromise. There is no need to compromise with a two party system. You shuffle the so called majority back and forth - telling folks who won this time, after the traditional hype. Even though the person who would ultimately be the puppet in chief would always be selected by the owner class. Elections are part of 'Pane et Circensis' - there is a thrill in the run up and when the numbers are coming in.

Debates are held to further the divisions by making people believe that there are fundamental differences between candidates. Just as today. But there are not, if not for a public relation style variance in the make up or smell of a candidate. Orwell said in Animal Farm: "The trough is always the same - only the pigs change." Sure, that is a bitter pill to swallow, but it needs to be swallowed to free the mind of all this programming and conditioning.

You allege that I fall for the fake ham theater that you, or Don Will are still buying into. I don't. I call myself awakened to the fact that it is all a show and a very lousy one at that. You also allege that this has anything to do with race, or white supremacy. It doesn't. You are fooled to believe that in the same way the owners incite rage and hatred against any policies that serve The Many and not the Few. You are likely also still buying into Left versus Right, Liberal versus Conservative, or any of the other artificial divides that are swallowed hook, line and sinker by the population. In all fairness it must be said that the American people are of course not alone at that. But they are the noisiest and most gullible at it.

Not to be able to see what is really going on in North America (and most of the Western hemisphere) - beyond any 'swamp' or 'deep state', beyond artificial divisions and constant violence of one sort or another, bears a confusion in it that will forever prevent the awakening of the population. And that is the real goal of what is called TPTB. It matters not if the United States ceases to exist. The owners are like fat on top of the chicken soup. It will always be on top. Rich Fat floats on Poor Water. The poor are the working class and formerly middle class that are no longer able to stay afloat - the Fat is suffocating them.

And what is the <$ 50K per year population doing? Blaming anything that is offered to them as a culprit. Any scapegoat will do. The person who figured that out was Edward Bernays. A diehard Nazi that despised the masses. He advised both, large US corporations and the US regime, how to manipulate the population into demanding their own demise. This program prevails as long as people do not possess the mental means to look through the ultimate deception.

Trump is the Matador with the red cloth for the one part of the population. He is the pied piper for the other part. That is his job. To give this person credit for anything shows that one does not really understand how it works - how one is worked, how everybody is worked based on their capabilities.

While people are starting to hate each other - if they have not done so already - far reaching changes are arranged in the dark of total secrecy. Endless wars, pedophiles, minor girls pimps, socialist mass shooters, fake mass shooters, sick mass shooters, lowering the interest rate for the rich while the poor have to contend with 36%APR, unaffordable housing for full time workers, a society that makes its people sick to allow the few to profit from it - it is all part and parcel of the attempt to dehumanize human beings. To destroy Homo Sapiens by turning it into a mindless consumer that has forgotten why it evolved to where it is today in the first place.

This is evolution and to not being able to understand that Homo Sapiens is not doing the evolving is the greatest obstacle for its further evolution. The Fascist US regime with the support of utterly messed up religious freaks, believes it can change the course of mankind. Those who can't see that delusion and the myriad ways it plays out are also on autopilot. It takes courage and strength to accept the truth. Trump does not know who and what he is and neither do those he surrounds himself with, in union with those who criticize him, who pretend to be different while they are of course not.

It is called reflection and not for no reason a wise person once said that "The World is as you see it". Trump is the world for you and every other human being. You are the world for everybody else. How you see others is how you are, otherwise you could not see that.

At that, the entirety of the political ham theater in the Western hemisphere is nothing but a reflection of how the members of it societies see 'their' world. But there is only ONE world - no matter how one twists and bends it. Intellectual, or stupid. No matter what one believes - it will forever remain ONE world with everything in it as it is.

I predict martial law coming to the United States very soon. But it will not be sold to the people as such. It will be sold as a necessary step to protect the United States from its enemies - enemies that are all made up. It will be announced in a 'tweet'. And the 'Democrats' will give standing ovations to Trump for telling congress to declare war on...

@psychohistorian.. okay, thank you... trump is not running or dictating anything to the federal reserve.. he is beholden to the fr...that is how i see it... making it look like he has any say over the fr is a joke.. that's all... trump is the kabuki... economic data and interest rates and all this is the kabuki... even the fed reserve as some type of institution that has any interest in little people, aside from being pure bullshite, is the kabuki... i am not sure what you thought i said, but it doesn't look like you interpreted it correctly... cheers - james

It is my belief that the only thing that really matters is to be true to oneself. If that mindset is achieved, then one can truly open one's eyes and allow everything to be seen 'as is'.

The American society has spent the last seven decades to transform into a place where denial reigns. But I have always been lenient towards the American people - for one reason:

The Nazi society was imported by the American owner class to create an 'improved' version of the German society from '39 - '45. The owner class knew how easy it would be to sell the American people a 'polished' version of totalitarianism. Vaccinating the American society with the Red Scare virus was all it took to make people tilt towards more laws and punishment for any deviation from the capitalist dreamland.

What is happening today, this very moment can only be understood in the light of this massive manipulation of the collective American mind. This is what I care to point out, because I do love the idea of a land of unlimited opportunities - a reflection of the Universe. At the moment though, the American people have allowed criminal subjects to sell them their loss of all freedoms they might have ever had, selling them their misery, their poverty, their sickness and their despair. This is what the American workers go to work for.

It is time for them to look into the mirror and ask themselves whom they are looking in the eyes. Is it still a human being? Or a shell owned by a few ultra rich sociopaths?

nottheonly1 @175: I predict martial law coming to the United States very soon.

Not sure about martial law but I've been thinking that USA establishment may introduce a guest worker program similar to Israel and Saudi programs.

America is addicted to cheap labor but they don't want more central and South American citizens. Both the fake left and fake right shills will rejoice - while remaining silent about the greatly expanded policing that the government needs for such a system.

@james: expect the same in Canada 2-10 years after USA. Probably Europe too.

Anyone who knows anything about the Federal Reserve would quickly see that yahoo article and see it for what it is, a pro-propaganda piece in support of a private banking cartel keeping control of the money supply of a sovereign nation and keeping their debt slavery system as a good thing.

I just found this on RT and for what it's worth, it follows exactly my predictions for which someone else gave me some words of disbelief. This is already on autopilot. The owners want total distraction from preparations for the upcoming big war. Nothing better than the population shooting itself up. That keeps everybody off the streets. At a moment when the world really needs a massive anti-war movement on the streets. Although the anti-war movement will now be considered 'domestic terrorism' by the FBI.

@177 jr... fully concur.. thanks.. people who need handguns for the most part, are mentally deranged to begin with... rifles for hunting is different.. i agree with you that canada follows the usa in a lot of stuff, but this one we'll have to see.. probably correct..

@180 karlof1.. thanks, but i personally don't believe one word of that... it is a fluff piece for the federal reserve... again, i have to concur with @181 o in his comments... perhaps michael hudson goes into the nitty gritty on the federal reserve... i think that would be worth finding what he says, as both you and i appreciate his ideas...

To add to the books that one can read about the US Fed, I suggest William Greider's "The Secrets of The Temple"

I am also "enjoying" Cobbett's "Paper against Gold" which documents the founding of The City of London Corporation in 1694 and subsequent going away from gold/value based money in the late 1700's.......... H/T to bevin Fiat money is debt and only useful as long as there is FAITH in it.

There is only one empire and the cornerstone of it is global private finance.....owned by ?????? but they have managed to brainwash folks into believing it is all jews to provide another level of indirection away from the real owners of the Western way of Top/Bottom life

here's another of dozens of articles I could muster to prove my point. And it's not anything new as this article published shortly after the election proves!!! Using Trump federal reserve as search terms on Yandex, I get 3 million results, most of them describing his ambivalence/hostility to the institution. Those reports and their frequency grossly outweigh anything O has mustered, which is essentially ZERO.

"I get 3 million results, most of them describing his ambivalence/hostility to the institution"
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 7 2019 3:18 utc | 186
You are being suckered in by fake news, note that article speaks about the Fed's 'independence'

In pro wrestling this called kayfabe. Trump supposed 'anger' at the Fed for not cutting rates fast enough is a joke because that is what the Fed wants to do basically Quantitative easing but not calling it that. Keep inflating the asset bubble just like Clinton's Dotcom boom and eventual bust. I am sure one of Trump's economic advisors told him he could ride that boom wave(if the dufus even understands it) but is likely being set up as the fall guy for the big bust.

Trump is no Andrew Jackson the only thing those two have in common is their ignorant racism.

@ 186 karlof1.. trump might be ambivalent about the federal reserve, but the fr has the world by the balls and little twitter king can't do much about it, not that i honestly believe he wants to anyway.. the ponzi scheme is working pretty good for him and the usa, while the imf and world bank look after all the federal reserve kiddies - goldman sachs and etc. etc... actually, maybe it is the other way around - gs and citicorp ms and etc - use the federal reserve as there decoy... whatever way it works - it is one big giant ponzi scheme that isn't working for the 99%, but continues to work for the 1%...

here is one possible scenario... trump threatens the federal reserve... the stock market looks like the world economy is going to drop off a cliff... everyone is freaking out.. the sharks ( wall st banks and etc) go in for the kill - people are fleeced and it is all blamed on trump... that is a possible scenario... trump is no dummy.. he knows what a racket the federal reserve has going... he wants the same for himself...instead of maga, it should be called get america screwed again - gasa.. trump will either be a useful pansy, or whatever, but this is as psychohistorian was mentioning earlier - kabuki theatre, or as o says - pro wrestling...

here are 3 michael hudson articles on the federal reserve.. i haven't read them - only a bit - but i will and i will see if i can find you the relevant quotes too..

Dammit all, how's a guy supposed to just skim this and go to bed? (Mental note: next time I say I'm just "stopping by for a look," don't believe me.)

b @ your take on the Russian bear not rising to stale bait: Seeing Putin's "no world-historical mission" worldview is brilliant. As we say around here, "Damn, dude!" IBIYVD

Circe @ 39:

This is about three issues colliding: an inability to address alienation and mental illness in a compassionate and effective way beyond calling someone crazy and throwing pills at them, rising addiction to...guns, and the demograhic/social conflict and insecurity mass migration produces further stoked by racists.

Add to this toxic mix, the dumb mass's out-of-control MATERIALISM in a vacum of non-existant spirituality.

The world is doomed.

You confuse me. We're to have compassion for the mentally ill, but not the "dumb mass"? Is that a singular dumb mass, or are we many?

Those are my kin you're dissin', friend.

Well reasoned, sounds many of my kind of notes, and yet self-refuting. You compassion seems not to last more than a few paragraphs. Pointing, blaming, and shaming are so old hat. Surely that's not all you got?

karlof1 @ 40, earlier, and the surrounding field as far as the eye can see: well said, sir, IBIYVD.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had a misgiving about my first post, but I got over it. No, I did not name my muses human, such as that incomparably fair lady,... (psst, that's your cue, Sister, say your name!) "Wolfstonecraft, Mary Wolfstonecraft."

I arrive with Her colors flying as high as I can get them. If you don't know what these colors mean, or why a gentleman might fly so high his muse's colors, yet never call them out, then I'm doing it wrong.

If that's the case, then my misgiving was misplaced, and it's to my fair ladies that I now bow.

"...The right-wing Hindu nationalist ruling BJP party joined the IDU in February 2016. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right party Likud became the 73rd member of the IDU in 2018. The party's initiation was marked by a ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, presided over by Stephen Harper..."

@101 - Wow! Doubling down on your non-sequitur argumentation style won't win you any arguments. It will just make people disengage from you.

FWIW, your dismissal of my claim that I'm not a paid shill (2) could be used as a response to my age claim (1), and for that matter anything else I write. And yet you respond with many words attacking strawmen over ideas that I never wrote about. Your projection of who I am is as wrong as any I've seen in commentland. No I did not vote for Trump. I didn't vote for Hillary either. Trump is probably the single most narcissistic person I've ever observed either by first hand experience or through the media. He is an amoral man, is certainly not a Christian, and has seemingly no guiding principles. He is truly an empty vessel. He does seem to have a fondness for Jews though, having married one and with all of his other familial connections to Zionists. His reliance on Sheldon Adelson as a primary advisor is most telling. I am all in on the Occupy Wall Street movement - the big banks are truly evil, having captured our government for their own enrichment. Ron Paul had one thing right - End the Fed.

And also FWIW, no I don't remember the McCarthy hearings. I was too young. And yes, I agree that the government of the USA has been imperialist for a long time (since at least the 1840's). My first window to that was Viet Nam, a truly criminal enterprise initiated by the CIA and the MIC, the precursor of what we today call the deep state. Ike's prophetic warning in his farewell speech is chilling. A book that I recommend all should read is The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government.

And finally, with respect to your dismissal of word meanings and dictionaries - the inability for conversants to agree on word meanings invariably ends with separation and even violence. That's the future I see for the people of the USA.

Due to the nature of this board, I missed that you responded to my response. The train to converse about this exchange might have left the station.

However, I like to peel out the essential difference between you and I. That is not a difference in an existential way - since we are both not only in the same boat, but of the same Universe.

Where we differ is in your oneupmanship style response. It was you who was dismissive of what I wrote independently from you. That is, because my world view differs from yours. But unlike the impression of your response alleging that my words do not suit your world view, I only respond to where there is an overlapping area. And yes, it was you who had a problem with the way I express myself - including the Orwell 'compliment'.

When I comment on this board, I don't do that to anyone specific, unless the opportunity arises. What I comment on has obviously created the desire to do so. On the other hand, responses like yours make it clear that deviating not only with one's view of the world and specifically of the US world, will not be tolerated. In some way of 'Gleichschaltung' there is a mutual tapping on the shoulder phenomenon to be observed here. Groups of commenters generally pat each other on the shoulders, dismissing the views and opinions of others.

While I made my own world - as Pippi Longstocking reassured me would be the way - it is still the world with everything in it, with all 'going-ons'. Where I come from, there is no artificial division. That is the reason why I detect it so easily. Throwing around fancy words is not a sign of superior intellect. It is the plain language - with words that do not exist in the dictionary, but are to be understood easily - that are at the core of my writing.

Your response followed by the one by donkeytale give the impression this is some sort of club here, where a specific mindset is required. I reject that idea and can only advise for anybody to keep an open mind, or to develop one. That is the most important task for a human being.

To recap:

I do not mind who you are, how old you are, where you are, what the color of your skin is, or your gender, or your political beliefs. All that is your 'business' - lacking a better term. You do as you see fit and so do what goes for I. What I do mind is, that you do not see that the way you responded to my original comment is a reflection of yourself. Correcting me for the differing ways I express myself and the way I 'see' the world is what is not conducive to any form of Thinking Together as Krishnamurti pointed out.

And when you accept my responses being the reflection to your own ways of responding, then there is a chance that you will find out that we are not only sitting in the same sinking boat, but that we are the boat. No matter how anybody tries to deny this fact. We ARE the world.

Last but not least, I also do not mind that certain commenters would 'read over' what I write. It is not a lack to me. As long as the 'owner' of this blog does not see any problems with what I write, that long I will comment here 'The World According to Nottheonly1.

Maybe this is not the best way to have a conversation, but it may be the only way it can be done. Example given: having an exchange by writing each other letters. To those who really care, I am always open for an honest dialogue. Always.

Thank you for taking the time to lay out thoughts in response to mine. You might be surprised to know I agree almost 100%.

And there already exists martial law in this country. You may not notice it if you are caucasian is all.

Check out the statistics for black and latino incarceration rates.

Check out the violence being practiced on the border not by the random shooters but by the US version of the SS, the Border Patrol and ICE.

I will reread your comment again to be sure but what I ask from the two party system is not impossible and not even that far ranging. To start. Difficult yes. A long term process. Yes. Exciting and on the edge with caucasian people willing to risk their lives for the revolution. No.

What then? Give up? Move to another country? Sure but the same dynamic will catch up there too soon enough if all we do is run or suffer analysis paralysis.

No I believe ideas must find critical mass to begin even as those aren't the ultimate ideas we seek to put into action.

The US ideological pendulum is slowly moving towards socialism or social welfare democracy. This idea is gaining ground within one of the main political parties. This is observable fact.

I do believe you are dangerously wrong about no obsolescence of right and left ideology.

For the right will gobble up the post ideologists just as quickly as they gobble up everyone else who doesnt fall in their line. Dont be deceived. Fascism is the end result of right wing hegemony. Both exist and are increasing dangerously. Voter suppression is very real.

Do I expect the two party system to implement the ultimate idea? Maybe in a future iteration coupled with activism.

But I will start with the idea changing followed by the system changing just as we have seen the last 40 years on the right.

@195 karlof1... thanks... if you read those michael hudson articles, you will see that trump has no say on what the federal reserve does, outside he knee jerk reactions as described in the sputnik article.... he is on the outside saying stupid shit and all his flapping amounts to nought... wall st is calling the shots, not him... read the hudson articles to get more of an insight who is in the drivers seat.. it is wall st, not trump...